Miriam Brett

Summer 2025 - Bretton Woods Project This edition covers the Jubilee Year 2025 and calls at FfD4 to break the cycle of debt, IMF's Surveillance review, IDA21 package, Argentina, Sri Lanka and the IMF, and more.

Our new #ObserverSummer25 is out now🚀

This edition covers civil society demands of unconditional debt relief in #Jubilee2025, IMF's upcoming surveillance review, World Bank's billions to trillions 'fantasy', Sri Lanka, Argentina & the IMF, #FFD4, and more 🔥👇

tinyurl.com/ObserverSumm...

Missing the bus: Alexander Dennis and Scotland’s industrial decline How public money helped to erode Scotland’s industrial base and offshore jobs abroad

“In an increasingly volatile world, small economies like Scotland face a stark choice: either act boldly to shape markets, or be shaped by global market forces.”

Read the latest blog by @lmacfarlane.bsky.social, analysing Alexander Dennis and the erosion of Scotland’s industrial base.

While other countries implement bold industrial strategies, Scotland is using taxpayer subsidies to erode our industrial base and offshore jobs abroad

My analysis on the loss of 400 jobs at Alexander Dennis 👇

NEW: Alexander Dennis’s decision to halt Scottish manufacturing isn’t just a casualty of market forces

It’s a story of how public money has helped to erode Scotland’s industrial base and offshore jobs abroad

New analysis by @lmacfarlane.bsky.social www.futureeconomy.scot/posts/260-mi...

🚨 Uplift is hiring a Senior Political Adviser (Scotland)! 🚨

📍 Edinburgh, Scotland
💼 Fixed-term, 1 year contract
💰 £49,503 - £54,093
🗓️ Apply by 11pm, Tuesday 30th July

👉 Find out more and apply: cdn.prod.website-files.com/65fb154b5e34...

Nearly a quarter of foster places in England provided by private equity-backed firms Experts raise alarm over ‘commodification’ of vulnerable children as independent fostering agencies make millions in profit

Foster care in England is now a business model.

Private equity firms are cashing in on vulnerable kids while carers earn less than £1ph.

This is what happens when you turn public care into a market.

📊 @sachahilhorst.bsky.social & @sophieflinders.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

This Palestinian boy is comforting his younger siblings after they were injured in an Israeli attack that targeted a displacement shelter in Gaza City.

There has been more outcry at a chant calling for the death of a foreign military committing genocide than at the actual genocide.

Good to know we’ve got our priorities in order eh?

As the genocide we’re complicit in rages on, it’s important to remember who the real criminals are: peaceful protesters and a random assortment of musicians.

MPs will vote on proscribing Palestine Action, alongside violent, far-rights group MMC whose leader has charges for acts of mass violence in US. These two groups are not equivalent to one another, yet MPs will have to vote on the list in full. This is a manipulation of parliamentary process.

🏠 Scotland’s rents have surged by 32 % since May 2020.

This means tenants are paying an average of £245 more per month - in a cost-of-living crisis.

🧵

Treasury 'poised to miss out on £250m in tax receipts from Rosebank oil development' Campaigners have warned the economic case for approving the Rosebank oil field does not stack up

Thanks to absurdly generous tax breaks oil & gas developers receive in the UK, the development of the Rosebank oil field could result in a net LOSS of more than £250 million to the Treasury, while developers Equinor & Ithaca walk away with £1.5 billion in profit.
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www.scotsman.com/news/politic...

Zohran Mamdani Is Proposing Green Abundance for the Many The New York City mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani is focused on lowering the cost of living. It can serve as a blueprint for progressives seeking to embed climate action in real improvements for wo...

The Mamdani campaign offers a blueprint for the climate left: the path to full decarbonization must run through working class demands for affordability and quality-of-life jacobin.com/2025/06/mamd...

🏠 Completions under the Scottish Government’s Affordable Housing Supply Programme fell by 22% in 2024/25. The number of homes completed was 7,444, a fall of 2,070 compared to the previous financial year, and the lowest level since 2015/16 (exc. the first year of Covid-19) 🧵

Have your wages increased by a third in five years? If so then you’ll have less problem than most tenants will in paying their spiralling rents.

A Scottish government was formed in 2021 promising rent controls. These should have been delivered urgently. They still could be.

NEW: Our analysis of ONS data shows private rents in Scotland have risen 32% since 2020, an average increase of £245/month. This outpaces inflation and previous rent trends. 🧵

Our response to the Scottish Government’s proposed new climate change targets.

The response in full can be found here: www.futureeconomy.scot/press/184-re...

tl;dr Scotland will need to ramp up action across a much broader range of devolved areas to decarbonise the economy. @miriambrett.bsky.social and I discuss last week's emissions statistics in our latest blog 👇

Is Scotland on track to meet emissions reduction targets? New emissions statistics show that transformative action is needed to accelerate decarbonisation.

In our latest blog, we delve into the official statistics showing emissions of greenhouse gases in Scotland. How do the new findings fit into the longer term picture? Transformative action is needed to accelerate decarbonisation.

Labour claims to be defending Britain from new threats, but its warfare state is steeped in old thinking | David Edgerton For every sensible proposal, there’s a failure to think through the UK’s place in the world – and a promised ‘defence dividend’ that won’t materialise, says academic and author David Edgerton

“Khem Rogaly, a researcher at Common Wealth, a progressive thinktank, has studied the relations of defence spending and jobs, and observes that “this is not a serious industrial or jobs strategy”.”

Khem Rogaly in David Edgerton’s latest for @theguardian.com 🔗👇

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We’ve known community energy punches well above its weight for some time. It’s not just about energy - it’s about wealth, resilience, engagement, power and prosperity. It’s also really popular. It won’t do ‘net zero’ alone, but it has to be a core pillar of any successful, just transition.

Attempting to drill baby drill our way out of an aging basin with a decreasing rate of production and enormous job losses over the past decade - despite huge government support - is doomed to fail.

Our response to Donald Trump’s illogical intervention today:

Among his other interesting comments today, President Trump has alleged that there's a century worth of oil & gas drilling left in the North Sea that the UK should incentivise in order to get energy costs down.
Let's take a closer look at the veracity of that idea, shall we?
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Very pleased to see Future Economy Scotland’s wage squeeze analysis raised at FMQs. In 2024 the average full-time worker in Scotland earned £38,464 a year. If earnings had instead grown in line with pre 2008 crisis trends, the same worker would be earning £53,923 today.

Our analysis of Scotland’s wage squeeze was raised at FMQs this week.

The damage inflicted by austerity and runaway inflation cannot be undone. As we approach an election, rather than scapegoating migrants, the debate must focus on the true culprit: a broken economic model.

All of Scotland has water scarcity, with some areas approaching significant levels, after driest start to the year since 1964.

Real Constraints The Global North talk constantly about the "Finance Gap", but finance for climate is limited by orthodoxy, not reality.

The Global North talk constantly about the "Finance Gap", but finance for climate is limited by orthodoxy, not reality.

@laramerling.bsky.social writes for RIGHT TURN (ISSUE #1)

Scots workers suffer £15k wage drop due to flatlining and inflation Real average weekly earnings in 2024 were just £8 higher than they were in 2008.

“Rather than scapegoating migrants for the country’s economic failures, the debate must focus on the real culprit: a broken economic model.”

My comment in the Daily Record on Scotland’s earnings squeeze:

Scots workers suffer £15k wage drop due to flatlining and inflation Real average weekly earnings in 2024 were just £8 higher than they were in 2008.

“Hard-pressed Scots workers are £15,000 a year worse off than they should be due to flatlining wages.”

Our new earnings analysis is covered by the @dailyrecord.co.uk.web.brid.gy

Commenting on the analysis, our co-director @lmacfarlane.bsky.social said: